After her brother William died in 1979, Dolly Banks took over as general manager. William Banks had no children, so several distant relatives filed lawsuits, fighting for ownership of WWDB and WHAT. In 1985, Dolly Banks retired after the African-American employees of sister station WHAT, along with the Black Media Caucus in Washington, D.C., sued the estate, receiving millions of dollars and forcing an estate sale of WWDB. The sale, which was overseen by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), required the stations to go to black ownership. WWDB was sold to Ragen Henry, a black Philadelphia attorney, for an undervalued amount of $6 million. Henry's law firm had worked for the Banks family. Irv Homer had to testify before the FCC.