Keeping the Faith for Michael : Airplay for the artist’s current single, ‘Jesus to a Child,’ shows fans remain true to the pop star, despite a six-year lapse in recording.

Radio programmers haven’t lost faith in George Michael.

The English pop star’s new single, the melancholy ballad “Jesus to a Child,” is receiving widespread airplay on a variety of formats.

This early reaction seemingly belies speculation that Michael’s audience would dissipate in the six years since he released his last album--a period that he spent, in part, fighting a bitter legal battle with Sony Music.

“Radio has opened its arms and embraced this song,” says Tony Novia, an editor at Radio & Records magazine, a Los Angeles-based trade publication that keeps tabs on the playlists of the nation’s key radio stations.

Adds Dave Verdery, music director at KBIG-FM (104.3), which is already playing the song in heavy rotation: “We’ve had quite a few calls from listeners who want to hear it again.”

That’s encouraging news for DreamWorks Records, a division of DreamWorks SKG, the entertainment company founded last July by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

The label, which has not yet signed any other artists, is counting on Michael’s upcoming album to give it a splashy entrance into the business. The company obtained the North American rights to Michael’s next two studio albums last summer after teaming with Virgin Records to buy out the Grammy-winning singer’s contract from Sony. (Virgin will release Michael’s recordings in the rest of the world.)

Though Michael lost his 1994 battle in the British High Court of Justice to void his contract with Sony Music Entertainment Ltd., the company agreed to the DreamWorks/Virgin buyout after the singer insisted he would never record again for Sony.

Some industry observers saw the DreamWorks/Virgin deal as a major gamble for the labels because the 32-year-old Michael, who was one of pop music’s biggest stars of the ‘80s, has not released an album since 1990’s “Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1.”

The new single, which was released to radio stations on Jan. 3 and will be available in U.S. record stores on Feb. 6, “is exactly what they needed from him,” Novia says. “He’s getting [heavy] airplay in three different formats and essentially hitting three different age groups.”

“Jesus to a Child,” which debuted at No. 1 last week on the British pop charts, will be included on Michael’s third solo album, which is scheduled for release this spring. The singer is still recording the collection in England.

Meanwhile, his fans seem not to have abandoned him.

“Definitely not,” says Mike Kinosian, adult-contemporary music editor at Radio & Records. “In adult contemporary, this single is the hottest record out there right now. He’s still very popular.”

Michael’s popularity was enormous in the late ‘80s, when the former leader of the pop group Wham!--whose hits included the lightweight “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”--made the rare jump from teen idol to respected adult pop artist.

His first solo album, 1987’s “Faith,” sold more than 14 million copies around the world (including more than 9 million in the United States), topped the U.S. charts for 12 weeks and won the Grammy for best album of the year.

One of the most popular songs on “Faith” was the sultry dance groove “I Want Your Sex,” but by the time Michael released his second solo album, “Listen Without Prejudice,” he said he wanted to downplay his “celebrity.” He was so intent on letting the music stand on its own that he even refused to appear in videos for the album’s songs.

Sales on the second album dropped dramatically--a reported 6 million worldwide, about 2 million in the United States--and Michael charged that Sony had deliberately tried to sabotage his career, saying that the Japanese conglomerate had little respect for him as an artist and purposely let the album die. In court, the singer alleged that long-term contracts--such as the eight-album deal he had signed with Sony--constituted a restraint of trade.

But the British High Court dismissed the lawsuit after 75 days in court, calling Michael’s contract with Sony-owned Columbia Records “reasonable and fair.”

Still, the singer vowed to never again record for Sony, leading to last year’s buyout.

Not even DreamWorks, however, was ready for the widespread acceptance of “Jesus to a Child.”

“The reception’s exceeded our expectations,” says Bill Bennett, head of promotion at Geffen Records, which is handling the marketing for the fledgling DreamWorks label. “It’s being treated like an event.”