Songs and sounds have been breaking the silence on Leesburg’s “dark” WAGE radio station.

The radio station played a mix of music starting last week on the 1200 AM dial – WAGE’s soon-to-be home. WAGE radio, which is owned by Potomac Radio, went off the air at the 1290 dial in August 2009.

“Station management indicates that WAGE’s existing transmitter has resumed operation,” said spokeswoman Kimberlee Walsh Cummings in an e-mail statement. “This was done to maintain the operating status of the station and to assure its capability to serve the public.”

Potomac Radio station owner James Weitzman scored an approval from the Loudoun Board of Supervisors June 2 for the construction of three AM transmitter towers in Ashburn. The towers will increase the station’s wattage to 50,000 – 10 times its previous strength.

Federal Communications Commission rules require WAGE to complete three weeks of on-air testing before Aug. 1. After testing is completed, the station will go dark until its relaunch. Weitzman said construction of the towers could be completed by October and the station could begin broadcasting immediately after the structures go up.

Cummings did not specify whether the station is being tested from its former base in a building on Wage Drive behind Loudoun County High School’s football field in Leesburg.

“The company is continuing to expend all its efforts to construct its new facility at the Loudoun Water site,” she said.