diff --git a/django/newforms/widgets.py b/django/newforms/widgets.py
index 350b878af9..a2d5f52ff1 100644
--- a/django/newforms/widgets.py
+++ b/django/newforms/widgets.py
@@ -317,11 +317,13 @@ class RadioFieldRenderer(StrAndUnicode):
                 % force_unicode(w) for w in self]))
 
 class RadioSelect(Select):
+    renderer = RadioFieldRenderer
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        self.renderer = kwargs.pop('renderer', None)
-        if not self.renderer:
-            self.renderer = RadioFieldRenderer
+        # Override the default renderer if we were passed one.
+        renderer = kwargs.pop('renderer', None)
+        if renderer:
+            self.renderer = renderer
         super(RadioSelect, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
 
     def get_renderer(self, name, value, attrs=None, choices=()):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
index cb1d084631..81254a149e 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/widgets.py
@@ -663,6 +663,16 @@ You can create your own custom renderers for RadioSelect to use.
 <label><input checked="checked" type="radio" name="beatle" value="G" /> George</label><br />
 <label><input type="radio" name="beatle" value="R" /> Ringo</label>
 
+Or you can use custom RadioSelect fields that use your custom renderer.
+>>> class CustomRadioSelect(RadioSelect):
+...    renderer = MyRenderer
+>>> w = CustomRadioSelect()
+>>> print w.render('beatle', 'G', choices=(('J', 'John'), ('P', 'Paul'), ('G', 'George'), ('R', 'Ringo')))
+<label><input type="radio" name="beatle" value="J" /> John</label><br />
+<label><input type="radio" name="beatle" value="P" /> Paul</label><br />
+<label><input checked="checked" type="radio" name="beatle" value="G" /> George</label><br />
+<label><input type="radio" name="beatle" value="R" /> Ringo</label>
+
 A RadioFieldRenderer object also allows index access to individual RadioInput
 objects.
 >>> w = RadioSelect()