I recently came across a StackOverflow answer that gave excellent instructions on how to get the value of a checked radio button using jQuery:
var radioVal = $(\
it return -1 because you get the value before any radiobutton was checked. i think you miss placed your listener and index checked. I just got the same error, but finally found the answer, i get the index before anything was checked, please check your code arrangement, the code stated above is right.