Does :checked selector work on radios after applying .button()?

Does :checked selector work on radios after applying .button()?

I have hard time getting checked value from a buttonset of radios

alert ($('input:radio[name=r'+id+']').val())     //returns value of the first radio in the set
$('input:radio[name=r'+id+']:checked').val())       //returns 'undefined', even the radio is checked

any advice?